Online Guitar Amp
A free online guitar amp in your browser: plug your guitar into an audio interface, put on wired headphones and play through a virtual guitar amp with tone controls, a cabinet, delay and reverb.
Your guitar signal is processed on this device and is never recorded or sent. Use wired headphones.
Put on wired headphones first
With speakers, the microphone hears the amp and the sound can build into a loud squeal (feedback). Plug in wired headphones and turn your device volume down before you start.
Latency: press Start or Play demo riff to see what your browser reports.
Keyboard: Space starts and stops the input, D plays the demo riff.
How to use the online guitar amp
This online guitar amp works like a small practice amp on your desk. Press Start guitar input, confirm that you are wearing wired headphones and allow the microphone or audio interface when the browser asks. The Input meter shows your guitar; set Input gain so it moves well but does not turn red, then raise Volume slowly. The volume starts low on purpose, and a limiter on the output stops sudden peaks. No guitar plugged in? Press Play demo riff to hear a short riff through the same amp.
Pick a Voice: Clean, Crunch or High gain. Then shape it with Gain, Bass, Mid, Treble, Presence and Master. Below the amp, the Cabinet, Noise gate, Delay and Reverb each have an On/Off switch. Every change is kept for your next visit, and Copy link to these settings gives you a link that opens this virtual guitar amp with the same sound. On a computer, Space starts and stops the input and D plays the demo riff.
What each control does
| Control | What it changes |
|---|---|
| Voice | Clean stays clear until you play hard. Crunch breaks up into a gritty edge. High gain adds a second clipping stage for sustain and saturation. |
| Gain | How hard the guitar drives the clipping stage: more gain means more distortion and sustain. |
| Bass, Mid, Treble | The tone stack after the clipping stage. 5 is flat; each knob cuts or boosts its band. |
| Presence | Adds upper treble after the tone stack for more bite. |
| Master | The amp's output level. Use it to match the loudness of the voices. |
| Cabinet | Shapes the sound like a speaker box: cuts the harsh top end and the deepest lows. 1x12, 2x12 and 4x12 go from lighter to fuller. |
| Noise gate | Mutes the hiss and hum between notes when the signal drops below the threshold. |
| Delay, Reverb | Echoes and room sound after the amp, as you would get from an effects loop. |
The voices and cabinets are our own designs made from filters and clipping curves. They are not copies of any brand of amp, and no speaker recording or impulse response is downloaded. For a full pedalboard in front of the amp, use the online guitar effects.
How to connect your guitar
An electric guitar needs an instrument input. Most USB audio interfaces have one, often marked Inst or Hi-Z. Focusrite describes its instrument inputs as switching to a high impedance mode made to handle hot pickups without clipping or unwanted distortion. The reason is a mismatch: Wikipedia's article on DI boxes notes that instruments are typically high impedance while microphone inputs are low impedance, and gives about 50 kilohms for the source impedance of an electric guitar's magnetic pickup.
- Plug the guitar cable into the instrument input of the interface and switch that input to Inst or Hi-Z if it has a switch.
- Plug wired headphones into the interface's headphone socket, or into the computer.
- Play hard and turn up the gain knob on the interface until its level light shows signal but never turns red.
- Press Start, choose the interface in the Input list and, if your guitar is on one side only, pick channel 1 or 2.
Latency: what works and what does not
Latency is the delay between hitting a string and hearing it. The Android developer guide on audio latency describes round-trip latency as input latency plus processing time plus output latency, and notes that musicians generally require about 10 ms. Every part of the path adds some: the interface, the operating system, the browser and the headphones.
Under the controls the page shows what your browser reports: the processing latency (baseLatency) and the output latency (outputLatency). MDN describes the second as an estimate of the time from the browser handing audio to the system until the output device plays it. These are the browser's own figures, not a measurement, and most browsers do not report the input side at all, so the real delay is longer than the sum shown.
| Setup | What to expect |
|---|---|
| Computer, USB audio interface, wired headphones | The best case for playing live in a browser. |
| Bluetooth headphones or speakers | Too slow to play along: Wikipedia's Bluetooth article gives 100 to 200 ms for classic Bluetooth audio. |
| Laptop speakers with the built-in microphone | Feedback risk, and the microphone hears the room, not the pickups. |
| Phone microphone | Fine for trying the sounds with the demo riff or an acoustic sound, not for playing live. |
Feedback and safe volume
Wikipedia describes audio feedback as a loop: the microphone picks up the loudspeaker, the sound is amplified again, and it keeps building. With a guitar amp simulator and a microphone in the same room as your speakers, that loop forms in a second. That is why the page asks for headphones before it opens the input. Keep headphones off your ears until the volume is low, and turn the Master and Volume down before you switch to High gain.
Before you play, tune up with the guitar tuner. To practice over your own parts, record them in the online looper. Keep time with the metronome, and find shapes in the guitar chords and guitar scales charts.
More for guitar: Guitar Tuner · Guitar Chords · Guitar Chord Finder · Guitar Scales · Fretboard Notes · Capo Chart · Virtual Guitar · Guitar Tab Maker · Chord Chart Maker · Guitar Effects · Online Looper
Questions
Can I use the online guitar amp without an audio interface?
You can try it with the built-in microphone, but it hears the room and not the pickups, and speakers will cause feedback. For real playing, use an audio interface with an instrument input and wired headphones. The demo riff lets you hear the amp without any input.
Why do I hear a delay when I play?
Every part of the path adds latency: the interface, the system, the browser and the headphones. Bluetooth adds the most. Use wired headphones and a USB audio interface on a computer, and close other apps that use audio.
Does this guitar amp record or upload my playing?
No. Your guitar signal is processed on this device and is never recorded or sent. To record yourself, use the online looper, which keeps recordings in the tab's memory only.
Which real amps does it copy?
None. The three voices are our own filter and clipping designs, and the cabinets are filter curves, not recordings of real speakers.
Is the online guitar amp free?
Yes. It runs in the browser with no download, no sign-up and no limits.